


I'm not doing that again

by yawnralphio



Series: Fictober20 [8]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Free Fall, Gen, fictober20, it's not buddie but it's not NOT buddie, yes i'm aware this is not how climbing harnesses work; yes i'm ignoring it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:54:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yawnralphio/pseuds/yawnralphio
Summary: Buck and Eddie dangle from a wind turbine in order to reach a patient.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Eddie Diaz
Series: Fictober20 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1967260
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	I'm not doing that again

Buck tipped his head back and shielded his eyes against the bright sunlight, looking up at the figure dangling beneath the partially constructed wind turbine.

“Think the ladder can reach it?” He asked, turning to look at Bobby.

Bobby shook his head. “Too high. We’ll have to go at it from above.” He looked over at them, his eyes tracking from Buck and landing on Eddie. “You up for a bit of rope work?”

“Aren’t we always?” Eddie grinned, looking sideways; Buck met his eyes, the thrill of anticipation making him bounce on his toes.

“Alright. We don’t know what kind of shape he’s in, so first things first, you need to see if he’s even alive. Be careful and watch for signs that he’s coming around. If you can, you’ll need to get him up to the top and we’ll go from there.”

“And what if that’s not an option?” Buck asked; not arguing, just making sure he understood.

“Option two is to secure a third line and we’ll use the thousand-foot rope to lower him down.”

Eddie nodded his understanding. They turned in tandem toward the truck, but Bobby stopped them.

“Listen, if he starts to panic you get out of his reach, okay?”

“Okay,” Buck said readily. He glanced at Eddie, and Eddie gave him a thumbs up.

They retrieved their harnesses and ropes from the side of the rig, taking care to grab ones that would reach the ground, and soon they were headed up the ladder on the inside of the wind turbine. The climb up only served to emphasize just how tall it was, how far out of reach of the ladder they would be.

Buck whooped from below as they neared the top, his voice echoing around them and down the length of the tube.

At the end of the ladder, Eddie pushed open a clear hatch and finally, they reached the roof. A hook on the guide rail signaled which direction they needed to rappel in, and the two of them worked quickly to anchor their lines, double and triple checking each other’s knots.

“Ready?” Eddie shouted over the roar of the wind in his ears. Buck adjusted his goggles and grinned.

“Ready,” he confirmed.

Eddie turned on his knees toward the side. Willing his body to ignore the screaming voice in his head, telling him to get away from the edge, telling him he’d die, that was the hard part. He took a deep breath and situated himself next to Buck, then together, they put their weight - and faith - on the ropes.

They descended carefully along the taught bungee cord anchoring the man below them. The wind pushed and pulled at them, so loud in his ears that Eddie could barely hear Buck singing from just a few feet away.

It only took a few minutes to reach the man, who hung limply from his harness. Eddie held him as still as he could, holding on to the harness while Buck searched for a pulse.

“He’s alive,” Buck yelled and started running his hands along the man’s body in search of any injury. He looked up at Eddie when he was done and shook his head. “No injury, I think he just passed out.”

“Brace?” Eddie yelled back. He situated himself behind the man and started fumbling with his line, hoping it would be an easy feat to hook the unconscious man to himself.

“Got it,” Buck replied, swinging inches away as he released his hold and started to extract the neck brace Hen had attached to his kit.

The moment Buck swung back toward them, the man stirred to life. He jerked in Eddie’s grasp, breaking it, and Eddie swung away from the two of them as the man started to scream.

“Sir, you’re okay,” Buck yelled, holding onto the neck brace with one hand while reaching toward the man with the other. He managed to grab the man’s shoulder, even as the man clawed at Buck’s chest and face.

The man continued screaming, and it wasn’t words, just sound. Eddie couldn’t imagine what it must be like to come around hundreds of feet up in the air, the feeling of being suspended with no control.

Buck continued talking to him, even as he reached for the rope. Eddie swung back toward them and knocked into the man, who had managed to wrap one hand through a strap at Buck’s waist. “We need you to calm down, you’re okay, we’re going to get you down, but we need you to stay calm.”

Eddie tried to grapple the man from behind, but he didn’t know what was safe to grab. If he had any kind of spinal injury, the flailing alone was likely to do more damage than any kind of restriction Eddie put on him.

“Hey!” Buck cried suddenly, and the man’s movements became even more erratic. The alarm in Buck’s voice made Eddie’s blood run cold. “Stop! Don’t do that!”

“Sir,” Eddie yelled, managing to hook his chin over the man’s shoulder from behind. He wrapped one leg around the man’s waist, frustrated that the instability of the bungee cord prevented him from doing more.

“Fuck!” Buck screamed, just as he came into Eddie’s view.

And then he was gone, and they lurched sideways as Buck’s rope dangled weightless in front of them. Eddie’s hands begin to shake.

“Buck?” Eddie called out, his voice tiny and lost in the wind. “Buck!” He yelled, louder now, staring in disbelief as Buck’s anchor drifted away on the breeze. His mind went blank.

Buck, gone.

The images flashed through his mind of what he’d find when he reached the ground, and he clenched his eyes tight around them, screaming Buck’s name over and over.

As if to add insult to injury, the man went limp in his hold once more.

Several agonizing seconds passed. He couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. He had half a mind to strangle the man in front of him.

He ran through the possibilities; two hundred fifty feet up, the odds of landing on the air cushion were slim to none. They were too high for it to really protect anyone from the fall anyway. They were also too high for the ladder.

They were just too damn high.

The world narrowed to his pulse, and just when he thought he might lose his mind, he felt movement. A hand, gripping his ankle like a vice.

He twisted in surprise, putting the unconscious man at arm’s length in order to look down.

Buck had one arm wrapped around the other man’s legs, the bungee hooked under his arm from the drop. He gripped Eddie’s leg like the lifeline it was because the only thing preventing the fall to his death was Buck himself.

“Hey Eddie,” Buck called up to him, managing to sound as casual as if it happened every day. He adjusted his hand, and Eddie could only stare at him, unwilling to believe it was real. “Could use a hand down here.”

“You fucker,” Eddie yelled back and looked to the man they were there to help. His head lolled to the side, useless. Buck’s line trailed in the wind a few feet away, too far out of reach to do any good.

“Eddie,” Buck called out, but Eddie couldn’t look at him. He searched frantically for a solution, a way to get Buck on a line that wouldn’t risk a further fall. “It’s going to be okay.”

He looked down. Buck’s face was firm, his blue eyes bright and shining even through the goggles they wore in high winds.

“We’re all going to be fine.” He moved his hand up toward the back of Eddie’s knee, and it finally set in that somehow, Buck really was dangling from him. “Stop moving!” Buck yelled, with just enough irritation that Eddie froze.

Time passed, but whether it was crawling or speeding, Eddie couldn’t tell. Buck made slow progress, alternating between shifting his grip up Eddie’s leg and up the unconscious man’s body.

Somehow, after what felt like agony, Buck hooked his arm around Eddie’s hip.

Eddie moved automatically to wrap his legs around Buck’s ribcage, and he felt Buck’s face pressed into his stomach. They weren’t out of the woods yet, but at least he could help take Buck’s weight off of him.

He could feel Buck trembling now, finally letting the fatigue show as he sagged in the grip of Eddie’s thighs. He tightened them.

Buck turned his face up, his blue eyes wide and terrified.

“I’ve got you,” Eddie said, then again above the roar of the wind. He reached down to grab hold of something, anything that would help give Buck an anchor. “Just hold on, don’t let go. I’ve got you.”

Buck began to laugh then, shaking in Eddie’s grip. It wracked through his body, on the verge of sobbing.

“It’s not fucking funny!” Eddie cried. He let go of the unconscious man entirely so he could take hold of Buck’s biceps, his fingers practically digging into Buck’s armpit.

“Good thing I’m not ticklish,” Buck called out, and he began to laugh harder.

Eddie stared at him in disbelief. “You’re going to die if you don’t shut up,” he told him, looking for the line in desperation. It was swinging around in a wide arc, but it had begun to thread back toward them, losing some of the slack.

He peered down at the ground and saw the specs of the 118 reeling in the slack, slowly bringing the rope back toward him.

Eventually, it came close enough for Eddie to grab it. He took Buck’s full weight on his legs and took hold of his jacket so he could get himself hooked back in.

Only once Buck had tested the rope, and his weight lifted off of Eddie’s legs, was Eddie able to let go.

They drifted back towards the unconscious man, careful now to stay out of his reach while they worked. Together, Buck and Eddie managed to get him hooked into their lines, and they descended with the added weight towards the ground.

Chimney and Hen were waiting with the stretcher. As soon as the man was safely on the ground, Eddie staggered to the side, leaning over in an attempt not to lose his lunch.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned, straightening, to see Buck standing there.

Buck had removed his goggles, leaving his normally perfect hair mussed. He started to speak, but Eddie didn’t let him as he nearly tackled Buck in the tightest hug he’d ever given. Buck’s arms squeezed him back, so tight he couldn’t breathe.

“I think I’m done with heights for a while,” Eddie said, laughing wetly when they parted. He took off his own goggles and wiped at his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m not doing that again,” Buck said. There was no humor in it. His hands came up to frame Eddie’s face, and he pulled him close until their foreheads pressed together. Eddie couldn’t see anything except those blue eyes. “You saved me,” Buck said.

Eddie nodded. “I’ve got your back,” he said, cupping the back of Buck’s neck. He could already feel the fatigue setting into his legs, and he’d be lucky if he could walk for the soreness; but Buck was here, alive, and any amount of pain was worth that.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://yawnralphio.tumblr.com).
> 
> Reblog [here](https://yawnralphio.tumblr.com/post/631464858842497024/8-im-not-doing-that-again-fox-911-free-fall).


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